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Why did Nelson Mandela’s ANC lose its majority in South Africa’s elections, and what comes next?
Johannesburg — On April 27, 1994, Black and White South Africans voted side by side for a new government for the first time in the country’s history. Nelson Mandela’s party, the African National Congress (ANC) had defeated apartheid and ushered in a new democratic era.
The ANC swept to power with ease and Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president to the delight of a mostly adoring country. Now, 30 years later, the party that brought democracy to South Africa has been defeated by it.
National election results announced over the weekend saw the ANC lose the electoral majority it had won in every round of voting since Mandela came to power on that historic day three decades ago.
Why did the ANC lose its long-held majority?
As they headed to the polls to cast their verdict on the ANC for the seventh time since 1994, South Africans had a lot to complain about.
RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/Getty
A stubbornly high unemployment rate, which officially hit 32.9% last year but in reality is much higher; persistent economic inequalities; rampant corruption and a lack of public service delivery, particularly in poorer areas, all contributed to the dethroning of the ANC.
Then there were the frequent power cuts. Intermittent outages have been a near-constant for well over a year.
There’s also a soaring crime rate, with 130 murders and 80 rapes documented every single day in the last quarter of 2023.
Together, all these factors dented confidence in the long-ruling party, and the result was a slap in the face for the ANC, which garnered just 40.2 percent of the votes — well below the more than 50% needed to remain in power.
What comes next for South Africa?
Instead, the ANC has two weeks to negotiate a new power-sharing government with members of other parties. This could take the form of either a coalition with a smaller party, or a government of national unity, which would see multiple parties get roles in a unified cabinet.
The options available could not be more different.
The second largest share of the votes, 21.8%, went to the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which has been on the political scene since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy and historically was a merger between the former apartheid rulers, the National Party, and liberal Whites who participated in the old apartheid regime but criticized the country’s racist policies.
The DA wants to liberalize the national economy, including a move toward greater privatization, but it is dogged by a credibility issue — perceived by many Black South Africans to be a mostly white, middle-class party that doesn’t care about the poor.
Then there’s the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, which exploded onto the political scene at the end of last year. It’s made up of former disgruntled ANC members and led by the disgraced former President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, who faces multiple corruption charges and was already sent to prison briefly in 2021 for defying a court order to testify at a corruption inquiry.
As a convicted felon, Zuma cannot run for office, but he remains the face of the party and helped MK snatch 14.9% of the vote away from the ANC by appealing to Zulu nationalism.
Like every election since democracy arrived in South Africa, this one has been declared objectively free and fair by observers. But that hasn’t stopped Zuma casting doubt on the results, including with public claims of vote-rigging, without providing any evidence.
On Sunday, the former leader issued an ominous warning.
“The results are not correct,” he said. “Results should not be declared. If you’re declaring, you’re provoking us. Don’t start trouble.”
MK’s manifesto is anti-constitutional. It speaks about nationalising the SA Reserve Bank and holding a referendum on scrapping the constitution completely.
The attacks on the election results appear aimed at denting the credibility of the vote and creating uncertainty. But Zuma is also fighting for his survival — desperate to avoid his corruption trial which could very well send him back to jail.
Lagging behind MK was another ANC breakaway party, the Economic Freedom Front (EFF), which argues that the ANC has not redressed the racial economic imbalances of apartheid. It wants to redistribute land to the less well-off and nationalise mines, banks and other key parts of the economy. But it made no gains in this election, instead dropping to 9.5% for a fourth place finish.
Jeremy Suyker/Bloomberg/Getty
The ANC could attempt to form a coalition with either the DA or the EFF and another smaller party, or even with MK, although it’s unlikely that Zuma would agree to this unless the ANC boots out its leader, incumbent South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, which seems just as unlikely, at least for now.
The unity option — a possible reset for South Africa?
As an alternative, a government of national unity would see a grand multi-party coalition, and possibly provide a reset for South Africa.
Despite this country’s multitude of problems and a poor voter turnout compared to previous years, democracy still holds strong in South Africa.
The election was mostly peaceful and South Africans actually sent a clear message by giving no single party a mandate to govern.
Gracious in defeat, Ramaphosa said the people’s will was clear, and he accepted the results.
“Our people have spoken, whether we like it or not,” said Ramaphosa. “Through their votes they have demonstrated clearly and plainly that our democracy is strong, that our democracy is robust and enduring.”
Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty
He said it seemed clear that South Africans want their leaders, from across the political spectrum, to find common ground and work together.
The cheerful goodwill could evaporate to some degree amid the cut and thrust of coalition-making, but the process has revealed a constitutional democracy that’s more robust than the chaos Zuma’s party seems to be hoping for.
The next 15 days will be crucial in shaping a government that serves the people of South Africa, and hopefully returns some trust in its political leaders.
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As sunscreen misinformation spreads online, dermatologists face real-life impact of online trends
With the holiday weekend in full swing, the anti-sunscreen movement’s recent spike is worrying dermatologists.
“It was not like this before,” Dr. Jeanine Downie, a board-certified dermatologist with her own practice in New Jersey told CBS News Confirmed. “I see easily six patients per week that are anti-sunscreen, where it used to be maybe one every other week or one a month. And now it’s just gotten crazy.”
Downie says in the last two weeks she’s diagnosed three squamous cell and two malignant melanomas, both of which can turn cancerous if not caught early. “And that’s me, just one little dermatologist,” she said.
This movement picked up steam in June, with creators on TikTok telling followers in no uncertain terms “stop wearing sunscreen.” At first, the posts received tens of thousands of views and likes. Dermatologists on the platform then began sharing their own reactions, with those videos gaining even more views. And more recently, influencer Nara Smith went viral sharing an at-home sunscreen recipe to her 8 million followers that dermatologists say does little to protect wearers from sun damage.
Dr. Shereene Idriss, a New York dermatologist who has amassed more than a million followers on her social media channels, is trying to leverage that influence to educate users about sunscreen and sun protection.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult, I think, as a consumer, to try to weed through the noise,” Idriss told CBS News Confirmed.
This misinformation reflects the surprising reality of how some young Americans view sun safety. A study by the Orlando Health Cancer Institute in March found that 1 in 7 adults under the age of 35 say daily sunscreen use is more harmful than direct sun exposure. “I tell my patients, if you want your face to look like a leather bag later, then that’s up to you,” Downie said. About 6.1 million adults are treated each year for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas according to the CDC. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the country.
“They only want the natural things,” said Downie. “But I tell them all the time, sitting in traffic here in the tri-state area, the level of pollutants in the air on a daily, weekly and monthly basis is significantly more toxic than any chemical they’re going to rub into their skin with sunblock.”
While there’s no evidence that sunscreens are unsafe, the FDA is currently investigating potential concerns. It’s called for more data on 12 ingredients often found in U.S. sunscreen. After conducting its own study into how certain ingredients are absorbed into the bloodstream, the FDA has called for more research into potential health effects on the body.
However, beachgoers on the Jersey Shore this week told CBS News that sun safety is top of mind this summer. CBS News Confirmed looked at Google Search trends and saw terms like “sunscreen” and “what does skin cancer look like” are at an all-time high since tracking began in 2004.
“You know what gets them to start wearing sunblock?” said Downie. “Young kids and young adults, Gen Z, Gen X, they hate pores. And once they hear that they’re going to have big pores that look like potholes, they put that sunblock on.”
The dermatologists CBS Newsspoke with say there is no such thing as a healthy tan. To best protect yourself this summer, they say to use sunscreen and reapply often; wear UPF clothing or UV visors; and avoid being outside during peak UV index between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
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Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian’s modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in Friday’s election.
Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator.
But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.
The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country’s Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran’s economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent.
Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country.
However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets.
The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country’s foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West.
The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation.
The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader.
Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.